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Mom, My Neck is Hurting, Why Are You Talking to Me About My Feelings?

“ Mom, My Neck is Hurting, Why Are You Talking to Me About My Feelings?”

One Sunday my son woke up in terrible pain from a stiff neck. He couldn’t get up or move his head in any direction. It was the first day of his vacation and he did not want to spend it in bed. He cried long and loudly from the pain and the frustration of being stuck in this very awkward position.

As a mom, my first reaction was complete internal panic as I tried calmly (outwardly) to access the situation in order to make sure we didn’t have an emergency on our hands. No fever and no injury quickly indicated to me that it was ‘just a stiff neck.’ Painful, awkward, but did not necessitate a rush to the doctor.

“Now what?” I asked myself. “How do I help get my son pain relief and get him up and running as quickly as possible so that he can enjoy his vacation?”

Vacation time is very precious to him because his siblings come home from out of town schools and he loves to spend time with them.

After having him take some deep belly breaths, getting him some Ibuprofin and letting him cry it out for a bit, I asked him if anything was bothering him recently. Through his sniffling, he asked me what I meant.

“Well, did anything happen recently with your friends or siblings that made you angry or sad?” I asked.

“Mom, this is about my neck, not my feelings.” he responded with exasperation.

I’ve had Mind-body coach training besides my own experiences with pain and healing and recognize the connection between physical symptoms and emotions.

“Often times our bodies will be giving us a message when there is pain. There are some emotions that need to be addressed. Perhaps something is bothering you in one of your relationships or maybe you’re worried about something?” I said.

And with that opening, he proceeded to share that two days before, his friends had been playing volleyball in our backyard and though he kept telling them to calm down, they ignored him. In fact one of them put a hole in the net. He was worried that when his father would see it that he would be angry.

He also complained that they didn’t listen to him when he wanted them to go home. He rationalized to me that it wouldn’t be nice of him to ask them to leave.

Bingo!

Anger, sadness, frustration over being ignored, powerlessness, guilt, and a whole host of emotions were swirling in his body wanting to be heard.

I recognized that my son was experiencing what Dr. Sarno, a leading doctor of Mind-body pain, claims about suppressed emotions and physical symptoms. I also knew that tapping into this spring of emotions was exactly what would get my son relief and on his feet again.

I started by having him breathe deeply into his abdomen, pretending that he was filling up a helium balloon in his tummy and then releasing the air out on the exhale. This helped him to relax his body a bit.

Then I had him notice what physical sensation he noticed when he thought back to the scene of his friends ignoring him. With some gentle prompting, we labelled it anger, frustration and powerlessness.

It was difficult for him to understand what ‘kookoo‘ mom was talking about, but he played along. He noticed ‘something’ in his belly. I had him keep his attention on his stomach for a ½ a minute. Then I asked him to ‘become’ his stomach and to give me three adjectives to describe himself as his stomach. This is a metaphor/imagination tool, and though he balked, he played along.

After giving me three adjectives, I had him take another deep breath and asked him to ask himself if there is anything that he “needs to know?” He shared with me what came up for him. I told him that this was a message that his body and emotions were sharing with him and that we could be confident that as we kept listening to what they wanted to tell him, that his neck would get better, perhaps not that day, but certainly within a day or two. This was comforting to him because he knew of friends who had had stiff necks and it had taken them a full week to feel better. He wanted to be goofing around on the trampoline and flying his drone with his siblings and he didn’t want to be out of the action for that long.

We continued on to notice other physical sensations and play the metaphor/imagination game.

We ‘spoke’ to his neck and stomach, we listened to his anger, his sadness and his fear. This was a process we did throughout the day as he rested, cried, took Ibuprofin and put cold and warm compresses on his neck.

Though we addressed the pain and the physicality of the stiff neck, I made sure to emphasize to him that we were allowing for all his emotions and hearing whatever messages that they wanted to share with us. I spoke about how important it is to honor our feelings and to set boundaries with people. I also said that it’s not healthy to tell ourselves that ‘it’s not nice to …..” Being kind to others is important, but if someone ignores what you are asking them to do or not do, then we need to be assertive and let our needs be known. I shared that even if that feels uncomfortable to him, that we will work on that together. I told him that I will help him be assertive and speak to his friends and that the most important thing for him is to notice and be honest with himself when he is feeling angry, including when he feels that towards me.

He slept great that night with much more flexibility in his neck. The next day, he felt better, though still in pain and we continued the emotional processing and physical care. By day three, the stiff neck was completely gone and he was his happy, rambunctious self, able to play around with his siblings.

Whoo hoo!

With his friends, we added on some rules and addressed with them the things that had been bothering my son.

So many lessons were learnt from this, for my son and for me as well. I really saw the power of recognizing Mind-body syndrome for what it is and we both recognized how crucial it is to address our emotional inner world.

A few days later, when my son had an unpleasant interaction with his friend, he shared with me immediately what happened and we took the time to address his feelings and body sensations.

He said to me “Mom, I don’t want to get another stiff neck. “

As I comforted him, we dived into his emotional wisdom and addressed the REAL source of his pain.